


10007

by EventualReason



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Hero Mode (Splatoon), Octo Expansion DLC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-01 12:21:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15774033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EventualReason/pseuds/EventualReason
Summary: leagues under the sea ha-





	1. A05

**Author's Note:**

> Numbers kept swirling in the octoling’s head but at least he had his senses.  
> “10007, you are here to reach the promised land.”  
> The phone spit out some things onto the floor.  
> “Take this CQ card and CQ-80. Pass the tests to regain your memories. Gather the Four Thangs and you’ll be set to go to the Promised Land.”  
> 7 didn’t know exactly what the phone was talking about, but he got the feeling that it was mildly annoyed. He picked the stuff up off of the floor and got on the train.  
> Train Conductor, C.Q. Cumber escorted 7 to the first available stage.  
> “....Good luck out there.”  
> 7 nodded and went to work right away.

A05 "Fake Plastic Station"

The trees dotted a mazy biome and the walls were made of thick, clear plastic. It was a little hazy like a cool and foggy morning. 7 took a few deep breaths, it kinda stung but it was poetic, and that’s all that really mattered. In the first big room an octoling elite appeared on top of a brick pillar. She had an octoshot inkgun in her hands and a greenish hue to her skin and hair. She began shooting around and covering turf. 7 pointed at her, “Stop that! This place is beautiful.” 

The elite threw a splatbomb in reply and shouted “ELIMINATE”. Aside from that, the octoling spoke in an extra warbled Octarian. 7 walked up to her while shooting aggressively. The strategy left her as an oily neon green puddle. He kneeled and took a look at the octoshot and hypnoshades that she had left behind. 7 didn't know what they were but they looked familiar. ‘She wasn't real at all right?’ 7 had never seen ink like this before. It had an artificial look.

One of the enclosure’s walls opened up and revealed a new path.

7 moved on and had to battle with a pair of fauxctolings. He took care of them one at a time. Another wall opened up and he had to face three at once. 7 hoped this wasn’t going to continue forever and took his time dispatching two of them. ‘They are using various weapons so effectively. Better than some elite I’ve met.’ Someone was controlling them exceptionally well. Despite the danger, he could tell that the girls were holding back. Maybe because it was the first station. 7 shot down the last of the three fauxctolings before the walls opened again.

There was a single gal with an octoshot once more so 7 just went for her as usual. Once he got close enough to hit her she activated a special weapon out of nowhere. “Woah, hello?” 7 pulled back while the gal took to the skies with an inkjet special. She floated around using an inkjetpack and shot one-hit k.o. blasts. 7 got hit directly with a shot, and instead of being a puddle he was reduced to a weakened, slow-moving state.

7 took cover behind the trees and brick pillars to recover. 'How the heck is this outfit armor?' Once he had his usual speed again, he shot at the fauxcto from behind cover. Eventually she went down.

The walls opened up one last time revealing a glowy floaty thing.  7 touched it once and it shocked his hand.  Then he shot at it because it was weird and different. After several hits it reformed into a turnstile and partially stuck itself in the ground. When he touched it then, it went into the ground completely. C.Q. Cumber declared the test passed.

7 super jumped back to the station and received a mem cake that was the size of his hand. It was a hefty eraser that was shaped like an Inkling. He looked it over for a moment before a vision came to him.  

(Giant) Inkling shaped Memory -

Highest King and Emperor of the Octarians, DJ Octavio (HKEODJO) shot glammed out metal fists at a fresh inkling, Agent 3. Octarians watched from monitors in the community superdome and throughout the valley. The battle was absolutely thrilling and the inkling could handle anything that was thrown at them. At the climax, Agents 1 and 2 channeled the heavenly melody though HKEODJO’s speakers. It was an absolute masterpiece, a song with some culture! It's power broke through the mind control of the old octo-goggles. 

After his defeat and capture, the army academy halls became party anarchy. Octarians jammed to the music of inkopolis plaza with a hotwired radio tower. Everyone was coming up with escape routes so they could go to the surface. 7 saw himself already packing up to leave Octo Valley with the majority of his class when he was 14.

-

7 came back to his present self and got back on the train quietly. He was 16, wearing a latex one sleeve top, latex leggings, black boots with metal heels, and a neon yellow band around one wrist, another around one ankle. There were neon lights everywhere.  7 didn’t feel very good.


	2. A06 A07

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The more 7 looked at this mysterious world underground, the less he could understand it.

“C.Q., what’s all this testing for?” 7 sat in a seat nearby.  
“To prove that you are ready to reach the Promised Land.” The cucumber recited what his employee manual said.  
“Why am I not fighting inklings, or any other surface creature? There’s octo tech all over.”  
“I’ve been told...you guys were planning an invasion of the surface?”  
“That should happening soon depending on what day it is.”  
“Tuesday”  
“Okay, but I meant-”  
“Kamabo co. is in full support of Octarians reaching the surface. They are the most prepared and organized culture around, so their commune-military inventions are best for testing others.”  
“We’re flattered.”  
“Aside from that, no one up there wants to come down here. Surface creatures are an extremely rare hire.”  
7 nodded. “...sorry if it was a dumb question.”  
“...I’m surprised that you know the common deep sea language so well now.”  
“Oh! Woah...” 

A06 Bounce with Me  
7 stood at the station gate and shot at the provided Kamabo co. target balloon with a blaster. 7 was not used to using these surface weapons. They were flashy, and covered in sponsor logos so it was harder to be stealthy. He doubted that inklings made them since the weapons we’re very good, but they may have decorated them. There was only the octarian ‘brand’ in octo valley so they all had a uniform look of black and white. The weapons were nearly the same, but appearance creates personality.

7 swiped his card at the turnstile and was slung onto the stage. There were floating objects all over the place with bounce pads on the floor. The station reminded him a lot of octo valley. The octoling bounced around awkwardly for a while. He hated not having solid ground to stand on. It made him nervous.   
As an extra layer of difficulty, 7 had to bounce over ink sticks. The tubes of rapidly spinning ink were rotating over the bounce pads, so he had to time his high-jumps precisely.   
Single-tentacled fauxctarians bounced around and shot ink at 7 when there weren’t any ink sticks. If there were 7 was sure the fauxctarians wouldn’t be able to dodge them themselves. The blaster 7 had shot far and it’s ink bullets exploded on impact. It just had a super low fire-rate, so he didn’t really go out of his way to shoot anyone. At the stage’s end, 7 shot down the disembodied goal post and touched it, passing another test.

Back at the station entrance 7 got another big inkling mem cake

(Giant) Inkling boy shaped Memory -   
“....” Io ricordo was in a room with speakers blaring the Heavenly Melody (HM). He’d been in there for hours but was standing comfortably with his arms crossed.   
Scientists observed him from a window. “The hypnoshades are completely blocking out the power of the recording. We’ll be unstoppable with this new interference-blocking...”  
Io read their lips as best as he could before the scientists turned away. Hopefully that’s what they were saying up there. The terminator-like sunglasses kept him from being able to move his body, but he could look around with his eyes a little. ‘I was caught trying to escape, and now I’m locked up in my own head…these sunglasses are super cool though.’   
The scientists went on making Io’s body run through obstacle courses while the HM continued. The desire to reach the surface eventually filtered out of his head. Familiarity breeds contempt. Io remembered that he mentally fell asleep several times throughout testing. 

"Oh, I think I remember my name."

A07 Maverick  
Io was kicking his legs around and flying wildly for a good three minutes. He never liked using the inkjet special, ever. This station required him to use it the whole entire way to the goal. Despite his nerves, Io’s flying and jump-boosts were pretty good. “Th-the octozeppelin are h-here too? Should i call them...fauxctoblimps?” Who did Kamabo co. hire to remake this newer octarian stuff? Every thing was well replicated and honestly improved. The more Io thought about other things the better his flying became. Before he really noticed he had gotten another mem cake.

Oh another Inkling Boy Memory -   
9097 jump-boosted at the worst moment and ended up flying into a pit. 9096 was laughing as the other octoling shakily re-spawned at the station platform.   
“Sh-shut up 6! I’ve got this. I can do it this time.”  
“Nah” 6 patted the other’s shoulder. “I’ll go this time. We learn best from observation. So watch moi, Grace-master no.6, skillfully accomplish what you currently can’t.”  
7 sat down and pouted but marveled at how good 6 really was at controlling an inkjet.  
-

The memory faded but it was obvious. Io had been here before. He wasn’t alone like he was now..   
Io turned to the glowy blue sea cucumber  
“CQ, why do you do all of this testing moderating stuff?”  
CQ was quiet a moment. He may have even been startled, but it was impossible to tell. “It pays well, and I don’t have to do that much more than I already do.” The conductor continued. “Keep getting those mem cakes.”  
CQ was more employee than Kamabo co. mastermind.

On the way to the next station Io thought over what he remembered. He just got back some memories about 9096. Octo Valley had been in a exodus frenzy for a while until Highest King and Emperor of the Octarians, DJ Octavio returned. Everyone was thrown back into harsh training and conditioning. Io volunteered to be a test subject for new Octavian inventions. It was a good way to get out of the rougher academy days.  
He didn't have any idea why he was on deep sea metro now, again.


	3. A03 C02 D06

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> forget the pronoun game, try out the multiple name game.

A03/C03

“Ball, big 8 ball.”

Io walked up to a ball that was bouncing up and down on a bounce pad. He held up his given squiffer and shot the ball. It bounced off of the bouncy back wall and rolled by him onto a solid wall. When he shot it across hard ground it would roll quickly, over bounce pads it would bounce. Io got it on top of some sponges and the ball lost all of its momentum causing it to stop.

“Okay.” Io carefully pushed the ball own a sponge slope.

A couple fauxctarian nerds shot at him. Io instinctively dodged. Their shots hit the spongy ground which caused it to contract. The 8 ball fell slowly into the deep sea depths. Io watched it with a sense of foreboding before he remembered what was going to happen next. His inkpack was already puffing up with green goo-ink.

“W-wait. No I’m sorr-”

CQ interrupted. “You let the 8-ball fall, Test failed.”

The inkpack exploded and destroyed Io. After some time, he respawned back at a checkpoint.

“Ouch....” Io shook off the gross feeling of death and got the ball back where he had it before.

This time around the octoling dispatched enemies before he brought the ball along. The path would switch between sponge and solid, so Io had to make sure to use the right amount of force. Anything to make sure that it wouldn't fall off again. Soon enough, he reached a long hall with bouncy walls and a ton of enemies. The 8 Ball bounced back and forth like crazy and would roll over any fauxto in its way. Io shot it so it would keep zig-zagging forward. At the end of the hall, the 8 ball rolled into an indent in the floor with a holographic wall.

“Goal?”

-Test Passed-

“Goal!”

 

(Giant) Salmonid Memory -

“Last night we went out again. We went to a few places outside of Inkopolis Plaza.”

A group of elite octolings had gathered us late in the night for show and tell. Highest King and Emperor of the Octarians, DJ Octavio (HKEODJO) was still in the hands of the Squidbeak Splatoon Agents. Every time he escaped he’d get taken again.  The octarians were partying a lot less, but border security was completely lax for higher-ups. The surface was still considered highly dangerous, so only capable Octoling Elite could visit.

"There was a splatfest in the plaza so we could see what places were going to be empty. Team Callie guys?”

"TEAM CALLIE!" everyone cheered.

“We got a ton of blueprints that were laying around. This is a skate park and these are some condos. Let’s replicate them!” The prints were very well made and easy to read.

They also brought back some different clothes, magazines, and advertising posters. “Can anyone cook? Vinder you cook right? Can you make this shrimp-topped-waffle thing? I found this poster in a shoe store but it looks tasty.”

“Yeah! I’ll try.”

“Io, help your partner out.”

Vinder protested. “No way, he’ll boss me into messing it up.”

Io replied. “I’m only bossy because you’re a pushover.”

“I’m a good listener.”

“You’re a mindless follower.”

“Take that ba-”

“ **Shut-up**! Look!” An impatiently excited elite pulled out her exceptional find. She held up a translucent, sunset-colored, egg with a little baby salmon inside. Everyone marveled at it.

It was a salmonind egg. Only said to be found in the deadly oceans. There was a spawning season on land every 70 years or so, but..."I found this in some creepy boat by Manta Marina."  

Suddenly an elite landed in front of the one with the salmon egg.

“S-Sgt. Aria!” The elite shivered as Aria took the egg and re-presented it to everyone.

“Salmon spawning season comes about every 70 years. This one is very early...but we're are already preparing for the full season." She paced about the room looking everyone over.

"Little is known about the salmonids because they only come on land for a few minutes at a time. We do know that they are aggressive, powerful, and dangerous, if you are in close proximity of their eggs.”

"Sgt. A-aria, shouldn't we study the egg? We could learn more about salmonids. We found it in Inkopolis so we thought they were studying it.”

“ _So you thought_ it was alright to take it?” Aria looked the elite in the eyes.

“I-I.”

“Well, it was.”

“Sir?”

“If you thought inkopolis was a breeze to visit, illegally, then you can take the egg back where it belongs, the spawning grounds. Take a squad, you’ll need to. You have two hours to report back to me with every detail of what we're up against.” She gave back the egg and the elite hurried off.

The Sargent motion for everyone to get to bed. “Show and tell is over guys. Leave the contraband, pat downs on the way out.” There were two elite waiting at the door with foreign ink detectors.

 

C02

Io slung onto the next stage. His intank was displayed on a big screen for him to see. He looked back at the conductor at the station.

“C.Q. What's up with that?”

“Your inktank is limited, if you run out before reaching the goal, you will fail. You also can’t refill the tank on your own.”

“Got it.”

If he ran out of ink he’d be ‘sploded and that hurt. Io walked up to a large and slowly rotating pillar. The path forward was high up behind the pillar. Io inked the edge at the point of rotation and swam up onto the block. He walked up the side of it as it rotated. When the pillar was high enough Io jumped off and onto the platform. The course continued the same way. There was only one flying enemy. He carefully shot at it because it was shooting everywhere Io stood. He got up another pillar and was getting low on ink. His backpack was pre-puffing up for explosion. The goal post usually took 7 shots to activate. This time around there was a big puffer fish over the goal post. Io shot at it once and it burst activating the post immediately. When he touched it, it was another test passed.

 

More salmon Memory -

Vinder was gathering ingredients out of the pantry. Io got out bowls and utensils.

"Maybe squids aren't studying those eggs. Maybe they just eat them." 

"Do you think they're tasty? Io-"

"Wasabi." He held up one root

"We're not replacing the shrimp with wasabi. Io where did you hide the waffle maker?"

"We don't need it. Just Wasabi~" He held up five more.

" _I_ need you to just stop."

"No no no, just listen. This'll be even better." He put a basket full of wasabi on the table.

"Hmmm...I'm listening."

\--

Iso Padre called Io over somewhat curiously. He was the leisure suited rider of Deep sea metro. He had a collection of various things, but mem cakes maybe be his favorite collectible.

“Youve been getting some huge mem cakes, 7 I’ve never seen ones that large before….”

“Really?” Io took out the Inkling for example, it was the size of a bar of soap. “The big ones are longer and clearer memories for me. That’s all I could think as to why they are so big.”

“You sure do have a lot to remember... Anyways, if you get some complete sets, I’ll give you some more gear you can use in Inkopolis.”

“Oh, neat!”

 

D06/C01

“An Inkrail!~” Io thought these things were the absolute coolest. The long rail wound up in a square. Two more rails did the same getting higher and creating smaller squares. There were some dangerous mini ink-furlers speeding along the rails with target boxes on top of them.

“Alrighty…” Once Io jumped onto the first rail a timer was counting down from thirty seconds. “O-oh, that’s tight-” He couldn't manage to hit the fifteen targets on his first three attempts. He had to re-pay the fare for every attempt.

“I-I’m down 600 points already.” He had about 500 left. This test could be a run-ender. Io stood at the station gate and studied the rails for a bit.

“Wish I could get the mem cake beforehand. It could be about this course…” He wondered what Sgt.Aria would do, not that she’d be on this subway for any reason.

“Mm…” CQ spoke up. “I’d strongly advise you to come back to this after you earn more points from previous tests.”

Io nodded “Alright, just...one last shot here.” There would be exactly 300 points left on his card if he messed up. It was enough to do the earlier, easier tests. Io went ahead and swiped.

 

Bumper Memory -

“Th-that was amazing 6. You’re the most graceful octo I’ve ever met in my current memory.”

“‘In your current memory’ isn’t as impressive…but thanks! It helped having you cheer me on. Please keep supporting me 7.” 6 smiled before giving advice. “Shoot what you can while getting to the top rail, then come back down after you destroy the big target cube. Don’t think about the time. Just go fast.”


	4. D07 J03 J02

D07

Io received an Octobrush at the next station. The best brush, of course. He ran along a course where he had to break box targets that were on the floor, on a rail, and in stacks. It was timed but for some reason this wasn't as bad as the last target box test. Io wondered why he had to do all of this testing to get to the surface. Why did Kamabo co. need to filter out who could and who couldn’t go? Were inklings so fierce that everyone had to have a six-pack to survive?  

The octoling got back to the station in no time.

C.Q. lead him onto the train. “You have muscle memory. I could see you weren't even thinking about this test.”

Io nodded. “I must have really ingrained these stages in my mind from last time. They say third time's the charm, but...maybe second time is good enough.”

C.Q. just nodded. “Mhm....”

 

Squid Bumper Memory

The Octarians had just finished creating a weapons testing room based on one in Inkopolis. They had even made squid bumpers to shoot at.

Io observed a couple budding octoling engineers conversing.

“Should we put arms on them?” 

“Maybe, Ooo~ we could make inkling-bots. It’d be much easier since we can ask the elite how inklings fight.”

“Great idea, bumpers can only work so well as a sparring partner. We’re running low on energy though.”

“We can get the zapfish again, eventually. So let’s write out the blueprints and put a pin in it.”

Bots would be awesome but the bumpers were fun to poke. Io considered saving a bumper for Vinder once the robots came about. He loves squids.

 

Io came back to his present self at the station.

“Vinder and 9096 are the same octo!”

Io finally put that together. Where...was 6 though?

 

J03/D08 "Girl Power"

Io walked onto a high platform overlooking a giant battlefield. The mission was to protect the orb that was rotating on a pedestal in the middle of the field. Across the field, a line of Fauxtolings were waiting for him to come on down.

“Actually...should I call them that? They’re just employees being controlled with the glasses. I think...”

This wasn’t anything different from what happened in the valley. The hypno shades and combat ability were nearly the same, but the ink was different. It was like their entire make-up was off. This would be the best station to figure out what was up with them.

On the platform, there were basic (inkopolis) versions of every weapon type.  He could use any bomb he wanted as well. The price to try the test was an astounding 2000 CQ points, he was given the maximum of 5 tries per pay.  Whatever was going on, this station dubbed “Girl Power” meant serious business. Io picked up the splattershot closest to the launch zone. When he landed it seemed he had a few seconds to pick up any of every available special. He picked up an inkshield and some extra armor.

“They’re giving me everything to protect this dumb orb….” The octo was extremely worried. Soon Octolings began entering the field gunning for the orb, and sometimes just shooting at him.

“God, it’s like I have 90 siblings that all want to break my game orb-” They were overwhelming, ruthless, and beat Io through his lives twice over.

“I can’t really observe them in this situation and I-I’ve spent 6000 CQ” If he couldn't do it on these five lives he’d just have to get back to this mission when he had a larger reserve.

“Ok…Let's see if I have 'muscle memory' for this.”

Io gave in for a moment, just like when he would put on the hypno shades. He let his body steer him through the motions. He could remember where each octoling was going to spawn, which weapon, which special, and even how they fought. In the last 20 seconds, Io let his main brain come back. The last octoling was going to be coming in with dulies in hand. They would aim to splat him as a last ditch effort to make him fail the test. Right at 15 seconds the enemy octoling threw a bomb towards him. Io moved right around it and jumped towards them and took the shades off. Glowing green eyes stared back

 _“Io”_  It groaned out his name.

“Ah! How did you know that?”

_“Kamaboko.”_

Io didn't know if that was an answer or not. "Kamabo co?"

At the same moment the timer reaches zero, Io had passed the test, and the ‘enemy’ became a puddle of goo.

Io silently held onto the mem cake he’d earned

 

(Giant) Sweater Memory - (insert from [9097](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15759147))

_'Don't go.'_

The phone asked one last time. “Are you sure you’re ready to go to the Promised Land?”

Vinder was mad as hell, “Yeah dude, YES! Takes us already!”

 _'Don't go._ '

“Phone! Listen to this guy! Convince him!” He interrupted

The telephone thought for just a moment before it replied. “...9097, return to the train and you will be taken back.”

Io bowed, “Thank you for understanding.”

Vinder’s anger peaked and he swung a punch at Io, but the he caught Vinder’s arm before impact. Vinder pulled his arm free and shouted, “You’re gunna leave me at the best part! I’m not going back and you shouldn’t either!”

_'Don't go.'_

Vinder walked over to it. “Alright, alright.” He looked back at Io for a moment. “I love you but go home, loser.”

_'Why can't I just say it?'_

 

Io got to the first Thang of his run and brought it back to central station.

“You’re a slick [ERROR] test subject, but that slow and tense style you have won’t fly in the Promised Land.”

“You want me to hurry up, I will.” Io looked the telephone over.

“Great, now do me a solid and stop trying to read me, I'm not a book. If you keep thinking, you’re going to end up deeper than where you already are. You’ll mix in just fine with e’ryone else who’s going. This time. _Finally_ . **So relax, slim**.”

Io would never get over how aggressive this telephone could get. 'W-wait, deeper than I already am? Was that a threat?'

 

J02

Io was thinking deeper then he already was. He carefully shot out, what was counting up to about, 100 crates to form a box sculpture of an Octopus. That was seriously the mission this time. It was a gigantic sculpture and one mistake would mean that he’d have to start over. Maybe the phone had a point. ‘My nerves have always been really bad. This place is going to give me a heart attack if I don’t just calm down.’ At the same time, this mission was really grinding down his endurance.

Tank-top Memory -

This may have been the worst part of going through the testing facility with 3 others.

28, 29, 30, 31 were a whole octoling squad. Two elite-applicants, one support-applicant, and Our Fantastic Elite Leader (OFEL).  were taking turns at the painfully long station. Waiting for each individual to shoot all the boxes took an absolute century.

29 was having her go at it and was most of the way through the crates, she had about 15 left to hit.  “Ahhgh! I’m going insane-”

31 assured her “You’re almost done. Grab the checkpoint and relax for a minute!”

I was half-awake at the station. “Go go go…”

28 laughed. “Our support lead is falling asleep.”

31 shook me. “You’re the last to go so pay attention~” Her voice was sweet, but it was obvious that she was annoyed.

 

Io sat in a seat on the train. "This isn't my second time."


End file.
